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Martian
'' |imageBG= |image=WellsMartians.jpg |imagecaption=The Martians as illustrated from an early publication.|height=4 feet |length=8 feet |wingspan= |mass= |skincolor=Oily brown |haircolor= |feathers= |eyecolor= |distinctions= |lifespan= |planet=Mars |habitat= |diet=Hematophagic |language=hoots and wails |members=}} The Martians (also known as "Molluscs" or "Sarmaks") are a race of aliens from the planet Mars, who tried to invade Earth when their own homeworld became an inhospitable, frozen desert. Despite their primitive appearance, their intelligence and technology far exceeded our own prior to the invasion. 'Appearance' "A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather. Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them, the head of thething, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder, another swayed in the air. Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin beneath the wedge-like lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth—above all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes—were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty." - Chapter 4, The Cylinder Opens. 'Biological systems' The main focus of Martian anatomy is their brains. Although they do have a heart and a bulky set of lungs they lack any sort of digestive system and so they feed via blood transfusion from other beings; on Mars, these are humanoid creatures native to the planet, on Earth, human beings are used as a substitute. Their reduced musculature system means that they don't need to sleep and in fact are constantly active. Martians reproduce asexually by growing polyps on the side of their bodies, due to having no actual gender. The Martians on Earth are eventually killed by earth-borne bacteria, of which their immune systems couldn't cope due to having destroyed diseases on their home world of Mars. 'Language' Little is known about the Martian language. They seem to use telepathy to communicate, and have very little spoken words. There is one exception: "Ulla" which is a form of war cry and it is uttered when the Martians are dying. 'Appearances on Screen' The War of the Worlds (1953) .]] The Martians first appeared onscreen in George Pál's [[The War of the Worlds (1953 film)|adaptation of The War of the Worlds]]. In this version, their appearance is rather unusual; they do not resemble the squids from the novel. They are short Reddish-brown creatures with long arms with three fingers that have suction cups on them. they have a large eye that has three colored lenses, which are red, green, and blue. they appear to have no mouths. Although the bottom part of this Martian is never depicted onscreen, blueprints that have circulated show that they have three legs with what appears to be a foot featuring a single toe (the same suction cup tips as those on the end of their fingers) Although the blueprints were taken from the TV series (i.e. Operation Deep Ice), which are Mor-Tax, they are based on the style of the 1953 film, so the relevance of these blueprints is debatable.. A more likely description would be that the Martians are bipedal. They walk awkwardly, but don't seem to be greatly hindered by Earth's gravity, unlike their predecessors. Because Mars does not have as much light from the sun as Earth, these Martians are realistically depicted as being unaccustomed to any form of bright light. They appear to have no use for humans. The Martians also appear to be colorblind, as shown in one scene that everything they see is green and purple. War of the Worlds (2005) Despite using similar Tripods the aliens in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of The War of the Worlds are not from Mars. Their form instead seems to resemble that of their fighting-machines, with the aliens having a large head and walking on three legs while having two small arms hanging underneath their bodies. Pendragon The Martians from the Pendragon adaptation are the most true to the novel in appearance, having many tentacles and rather elongated bodies/heads. Asylum Film The Asylum Martians resemble green disks that have four tentacles acting like legs. The bottom of the tentacles have mouths that spit an acid that melts anything it touches. inside the mouths are three tongues that resemble the fingers of the Martians from the 1953 film. They aren't specifically referred to as Martians in the film. Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds (1978) The Martians were recreated for the 1978 album of Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds Alive and for the live stage tours. They draw heavily from the H.G. Wells' descriptions, Jeff Wayne himself had great input into their creation. 'BBC's The War of The Worlds' The Martians from the ''War of the Worlds'' BBC miniseries are a bit different from the ones in the original novel. They are indeed sentient beings, but their appearance is much more arthropod-like and have three legs like in the Steven Spielberg film. They also feed on human flesh and blood with their hidden proboscis, like how mosquitoes drink blood. They seem to be invulnerable or resistant to fire. When several Martians emerged from their tripod and landed next to the inn where people were sheltering one of them managed to enter through the chimney and as another finds an old woman crawling on the ground. The Martian proceeded to pin her with its leg and fed on her before dragging away her corpse. A Martian outside was crouching and shreaking loudly as it seemed to be either sick or injured. It then killed a young girl and ate her. The Great Martian War 1913-1917 The Martians from the Great Martian War of 1913-1917 had a strange cephlopod/insectoid appearance, with four eyes. 'Appearances in Comics/Graphic Novels' (To be added) Influence Wells' Martians are likely the basis of the modern theme of aliens and extraterrestrials being "bug-eyed tentacled monsters", such as the Rigellans of The Simpsons and the Daleks of Doctor Who. 'See also' *Mor-Taxan *Wikipedia:Martian 'Note' The TV series retconned the origin of the Martians as being from the planet Mor-Tax. In keeping with what we now know of other planets in our own solar system (and the improbability of Mars currently harboring native intelligent life), modern adaptations of War of the Worlds tend to use Mars as the staging post rather than the homeworld of the invaders who originate from a different star system altogether. Gallery Vlcsnap-error453.png|Martian from the 2019 BBC adaptation. Vlcsnap-error884.png|The Martian, facing George before killing him. 37ae9f90b1068cc0dd108f1a780bc207.jpg|Martian Concept Art drawn by Ray Harryhausen for his Film adaptation of the novel. 2005 Alien WaroftheWorlds.jpg|Alien Concept Art for the 2005 adaptation by Steven Spielberg. da71dd6a68da1880e08e95c1180ab9.png|3D Model of the 1953 Martian. 6e8c282ff7478a534dc5700ad4a50c.jpg|3D Model of the 1953 Martian with background. References * Category:Aliens Category:Villains Category:Psychics Category:Jeff Wayne Category:Superman Category:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Category:The Martian War Category:Character Assassin Category:Race